IDC: Xiaomi reigns supreme in China

Xiaomi managed to push Samsung out of China in 2014, successful taking the top spot in overall sales for the region with 12.5 per cent market share, according to IDC.

The news comes after Samsung's appalling 2014 results, only selling 12.5 million Galaxy S5 units worldwide and failing to beat the iPhone 6 Plus sales with the Galaxy Note 4.

Similar results hit Samsung in the budget market, where Xiaomi managed to wrestle control from the South Korean electronics giant. Xiaomi managed 150 per cent year-on-year growth in China in 2014.

Xiaomi is not the only provider showing growth in the Chinese market, Apple managed to surpass Samsung, Huawei and Lenovo to become the second largest provider, with 12.3 per cent market share in Q4 2014.

Apple also managed to sell more iPhones in Q4 2014 than Samsung's whole smartphone lineup - consisting of over 30 smartphones. Both smartphone makers sold 74 million units, but Apple reportedly won the battle by 100,000.

Even with the huge results for Apple, it still was not enough to put them in the top five for sales throughout the whole of 2014, with Huawei and CoolPad hanging onto the fourth and fifth spot respectively.

2015 looks to be dominated by Xiaomi, Apple, Lenovo and Huawei, the four main suppliers in China at the moment. Huawei and Lenovo are both employing similar strategies to Xiaomi in the Chinese market, to win customers back.

Xiaomi has its own issues to sort out, including how to win high-end customers in China. Apple has strong control over that market, and the Mi Note and Mi Note Pro might not be enough.

Samsung faced a similar defeat in India, losing on overall shipments to local maker Micromax. Samsung does dispute this claim, stating it has sold more units in the region and remains the number one smartphone vendor.